D.C. Students Get Environmental Lesson

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, January 31, 2003

Kevin Roberson tugs his dark suit pants up and unleashes his booming voice.

"She betrayed his trust, she's a liar," the 17-year-old bellows to the jury in a mock trial in which he is defending a man accused of letting an employee dump hazardous waste.

The performance is the climax of a unique four-month course on environmental law taught by Justice Department lawyers to high school students from Washington's predominantly black, low-income Anacostia neighborhood.

The course's popularity and success in exposing the students to law and environmental issues has Assistant Attorney General Tom Sansonetti looking at expanding the program, now in its seventh year, to other cities.

"Before I took this, I didn't know nothing about the environment and I didn't care," said David Johnson, a 19-year-old senior planning to attend college next fall. "Now, I know if somebody does something in my neighborhood, I've got something to say about it. And it can be prosecuted."

Roberson plans to become an environmental lawyer. "If I could, I'd do it all: criminal law, environmental law, everything," he said.

Sansonetti's division, which is responsible for prosecuting federal environmental crimes, began the course during the Clinton administration under Sansonetti's predecessor, Lois Schiffer. The seed was planted in 1995 by an Earth Day poster contest the department held at the high school.

Dick Lahn, an administrator, and Tamara Rountree, an attorney, teamed with teacher Chuck Garland to get the program going. An education specialist advised taking a hands-on approach.

Lahn was advised that the students need to be shown, not lectured. "You'll never teach them unless you get them to do it," he quoted the specialist as saying.

"It really worked," Lahn said. "There are a lot of smart kids who have gone through that program."

About 30 attorneys rotate teaching the twice-weekly classes, which typically attract 10 to 20 students. Some volunteer more time, hamming it up as witnesses or defendants in mock trials and often buying pizzas for the students later.

"I grew up in a similar neighborhood and I remember the influence it had on me when people got involved," attorney Jennifer Whitfield said.

The students learn how to investigate environmental crimes and determine when they can be prosecuted. They prepare for trial, making exhibits, interviewing witnesses, discussing rules of evidence and exchanging tips for opening and closing statements.

They also take day trips, like canoeing down the Anacostia River. One of the 10 most polluted rivers in the nation, the Anacostia is contaminated by raw sewage, PCBs, heavy metals and other toxins.

"They've lived along the banks their whole life, but they've never seen it from the viewpoint of the river," Lahn said.

Environmental law is rarely taught at the high school level, said Buck Parker, executive director of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm for public interest groups.

"One of the things we fail to realize is that environmental laws are very vital to underprivileged communities. Those tend to be the places where unwanted facilities get sited or where dumping takes place," Parker said. "High school students are very aware of environmental problems but are not particularly aware of environmental law or of how law gets applied."

The case for the mock trial is modeled after an illegal dumping that occurred blocks from the high school in 1994. The city evacuated three apartment buildings, putting tenants up in hotels overnight while hazardous chemicals were cleaned up.

A Maryland chemical supply company president and an employee pleaded guilty the next year to federal charges of dumping toxic chemicals illegally behind a public housing complex.

When the moot trial in an Environmental Protection Agency classroom was over, William M. Jackson, an actual District of Columbia Superior Court who presided over it, praised the students' performance.

"Your questions were crisp, focused. You didn't get flustered," he told them. "You folks listened _ that's an advanced skill for a lot of lawyers."